Justin Fanelli, chief technology officer of the Department of the Navy, has accepted his 2026 Wash100 Award from Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and founder of the Wash100 Award, in recognition of his leadership in directing the Navy’s technology strategy and advancing the adoption of emerging capabilities.
Garrettson presented the honor to Fanelli onstage at the Potomac Officers Club‘s 2026 Navy Summit on Thursday, Aug. 27, following a panel discussion on software, artificial intelligence and digital engineering priorities shaping the Navy’s shipbuilding efforts, in which Fanelli participated.
Why Did Justin Fanelli Win the 2026 Wash100 Award?
Fanelli won his first Wash100 Award for directing the Navy’s technology strategy and leading the procurement of critical emerging technologies. Garrettson said the honor recognizes Fanelli’s career of leadership roles at Naval Information Warfare Systems, the Program Executive Office for Digital and Enterprise Services, and now the Navy as CTO.
“I’m excited to honor CTO Fanelli with his first Wash100 Award for his work directing the Navy’s tech strategy to procure essential emerging technologies at scale,” Garrettson said.
Garrettson noted that Fanelli demonstrated leadership shortly after becoming CTO by outlining priority technology areas, including AI and autonomy, quantum technologies, and cyberspace, which signaled to industry where to prioritize investments.
“CTO Fanelli has spent his career helping the Navy and the DOW acquire the mission-critical technologies to win decisively in combat, and I look forward to what he achieves in 2026,” Garrettson continued.
Steering the Navy’s AI & Tech Priorities
As CTO, Fanelli has continued to shape how the Navy approaches the adoption of emerging technologies. He has framed the Department of the Navy’s AI Efficiency Challenge as “an ROI contest,” pushing teams to measure productivity gains from AI adoption. His approach ties into the Navy’s broader AI playbook, which spans use cases such as predictive ship maintenance and mine hunting, and reflects the priority technology areas he outlined in a memo intended to guide modernization efforts and signal investment direction to industry.
Who Is Justin Fanelli?
Fanelli is a senior government technology leader with a career spanning digital transformation, data strategy and enterprise IT modernization across DON and defense health and research organizations. In addition to serving as DON CTO, he is technical director of PEO Digital, driving technology-enabled mission outcomes and secure enterprise IT modernization.
Earlier in his career, Fanelli held senior roles within the Department of War, including chief data architect for defense health; technical director for Navy manpower, personnel, training and education; and executive lead for the Navy’s 5G and DevSecOps transformation initiatives. He also served as a service chiefs fellow at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, principal engineer for Navy Enterprise Business Systems, and DOW’s chief systems engineer for command and control.
Fanelli serves on several national science and technology organizations and government and industry boards, including Hupside, the U.S. Technology Modernization Fund, AI-in-Gov and The SageHouse. He also teaches graduate courses at Georgetown University and has lectured at Harvard, Stanford and MIT.
What Is the Wash100 Award?
Founded in 2014, the Wash100 Award recognizes the most influential leaders across government and the GovCon community for their leadership, innovation and impact on federal missions and the evolving technology landscape.
Read Justin Fanelli’s full Wash100 profile to learn more about his leadership, the Navy’s technology investments and his contributions to government modernization.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Justin Fanelli on his 2026 Wash100 Award and looks forward to his continued leadership across the Navy and the broader government technology community.
